


The Summer of Love

by Wander Riordan (lferion)



Category: Original Work, SCA RPF, Society for Creative Anachronism RPF
Genre: Acrostic, Bard of the Sun, Competition, F/M, Fixed-form, Gen, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Poetry, Sovereignty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-06-01
Updated: 2009-06-01
Packaged: 2017-10-13 05:27:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/133470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lferion/pseuds/Wander%20Riordan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three acrostic poems for the Summer of Love of King Craven and Queen Elzbieta</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Summer of Love

**Author's Note:**

> Notes included in the text after the poems.

**Summer of Love I**

So fair and bright the summer sun doth shine  
Upon the golden lands of Atenveldt  
May comes with ribbons, eager to entwine  
Merry folk together, earth's blessings felt  
Emerging from the very land; now joy  
Reigns in all hearts, heats ruly flesh with flames  
Of hot desire, love all to employ  
Fierce in her service, and affection aims  
Lances of delight straight at every breast.  
Oh, voices now upraise, embrace as friends;  
Victorious love is now made manifest:  
Elzbieta, the Summer Queen, ascends!

  
 **Summer of Love II**

Sound forth the trumpets, love and war unite  
Unnatural allies show their better state  
Might joined with mirth, no bitter or grim fate  
Meets those beneath Death's hand, but heaven's light;  
Emblems of the Sun blaze across the land  
Rare roses grow the brighter for those beams  
Oh ardent star, that leads so many dreams:  
Fortitude and frolic both your command.  
Love is the law: all martial ardor bring  
Out now to meet the little death, nor yield  
Valor or desire on any field:  
Each doth now shine on Craven, Summer's king.

  
 **Summer of Love III**

Sing of a Yale-beast so brave and so true  
Undaunted by war, by fire or dread  
March saw him bearing a favor of blue  
Made by his lady so soon to be wed.  
Earl he, and Duke, now thrice give him his due;  
Rats shower riches, with kisses well sped  
Oh horns prick the ground, spring up strong and new  
Familiars thus this plague of joy will spread.  
Let none resist contagion, nor heart rue  
Open wide the feast hall. Let all be fed:  
Victorious  is Craven, Aten's lord  
Every cup full filled, all with love outpoured.

 

* * *

  
 **History and background:**

These three acrostic poems on the text "Summer of Love"  are modeled after the Hymns of Astraea in Acrostick Verse by John Davies, published in London in 1599. The works of Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503 - 1542) also served as a source of form and inspiration.

These poems are written as praise-pieces celebrating their majesties Craven and Elzbieta of Atenveldt, and are centered around the theme of their reign.

Poetry was considered an essential part of an English gentleman's education in the 16th century, and educated persons were expected to be able to be conversant with the fashionable forms and current luminaries, especially in the court of Henry VIII or Elizabeth I. Poems were written as gifts, as political commentaries, as satires, songs, praise-pieces and obituaries. The period contained many accomplished poets, male and female, ranging in social status from the Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford and Lady Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke to William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, sons of a glover and a shoemaker respectively. People of every rank and station enjoyed, composed and talked about poetry.

Poetry of this particular kind flourished in England from the second quarter of the 16th Century well into the 17th and beyond. John Davies' Hymns were published in 1599, and were specifically written as political praise pieces for Elizabeth I.

  
 **Examples:**

John Davies Hymne #1 (Folger)

E arly before the day doth spring  
L et us awake my muse, and sing;  
I t is no time to slumber  
S o many Joyes this time doth bring,  
A s time will fail to number.

B ut whereto shall we bend out Layes?  
E ven up to Heaven, again to raise  
T he Maid, which thence descended  
H ath brought again the golden days,  
A nd all the world amended.

R udeness itself she doth refine,  
E ven like an Alchemist divine,  
G ross times of Iron turning  
I nto purest form of gold:  
N ot to corrupt, till heaven wax old,  
A nd be refin'd with burning.

This piece shows the acrostic form, where the initial letter of each line spells out, in this case, Elisa Betha Regina. It also demonstrates the general theme of praise for the monarch. There are 26 such hymns, each with the same scansion and rhyme scheme of AABAB CCDCD EEFGGF.

  
William Shakespeare, Sonnet X (Gardner, p 149)

That time of year thou mayst in me behold  
When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang  
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,  
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.  
In me thou seest the twilight of such day  
As after sunset fadeth in the west;  
Which by and by black night doth take away,  
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.  
In me thou seest the glowing of such fire,  
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,  
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,  
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.  
  This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,  
  To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

This sonnet is a typical Shakespearean sonnet of the ABAB CDCD EFEF (GG) iambic pentameter form. The quatrain idea (ABAB CDCD etc, with a the number of feet ranging generally from three to six) is found in many poems and songs of variable length, from eight lines to hundreds. "Summer of Love I" uses this scheme.

  
Sir Thomas Wyatt, #185 (Muir, p 174)

Suffised not, madam that you did teare  
My wofull hart, but thus also to rent  
The weping paper that to you I sent,  
Whereof eche letter was written with a teare.  
Could not my present pains, alas, suffise  
Your greedy hart, and that my hart doth fele  
Tormentes that prick more sharper than the stele  
But new and new must to my lot arise?  
Use then my death. So shall your cruelty,  
Spite of your spite, rid me from all my smart,  
And I no more such tormentes for the hart  
Fele as I do: this shalt thou gain thereby.

This twelve line poem uses the rhyme scheme ABBACDDCEFFE, with ten syllables in each line. This is the model for "Summer of Love II."

  
Sir Thomas Wyatt, #178, (Muir, p 168)

Accused though I be without desert,  
Sith none can prove, believe it not for true;  
For never yet, since that you had my hert,  
Intended I to false, or be untrue,  
Sooner I would of death sustain the smart  
Than break one word of that I promised you.  
Accept therefore my service in good part:  
None is alive that can ill tongues eschew.  
Hold them as false; and let not us depart  
Our friendship old, in hope of any new.  
Put not thy trust in such as use to fain,  
Except thou mind to put thy friend to pain.

This poem shows a twelve line form with ten syllables to a line and a rhyme scheme of ABABABABABCC, Interestingly, the initial letters of the last eight lines spell out 'Stanhope', but the first four lines do not resolve into a known name. "Summer of Love III" is modeled on the form of this poem.

The Yale-beast of the first line is one of His Majesty Craven's heraldic supporters. It is a mythical beast resembling a goat with two long horns. Rats are Queen Elzbieta's familiars.

  
 **Bibliography**

Gardner, Helen, ed. The New Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250 - 1950, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1972.

Muir, Kenneth, ed. Collected Poems of Sir Thomas Wyatt, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1949.

Sisam, Kenneth, ed. Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1967.

Wood, Clement, ed. The Complete Rhyming Dictionary, Dell, New York, 1991.

http://www.folger.edu/eduPrimSrcDtl.cfm?psid=114 : Hymns of Astraea in Acrostick Verse by John Davies, London, 1599. Accessed April 15, 2009.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Yale_salient.gif : Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_(mythical_creature) , accessed May 9, 2009.


End file.
